Jailed without conviction

Like at least 30 other Indigenous Australians Rosie Anne Fulton has been languishing in prison without being convicted of a crime because she has been declared unfit to plead.

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: This story is about a group of Australians locked in prisons indefinitely without being convicted of crimes.

Tonight we'll focus on a young Aboriginal woman now languishing in a Kalgoorlie jail.

Rosie Anne Fulton has spent the past 18 months in the West Australian prison without a conviction after she was charged with driving offences.

The magistrate in her case declared her unfit to plead because she's intellectually impaired, a victim of foetal alcohol syndrome.

The Aboriginal Disability Justice Campaign says there are at least 30 Aboriginal people in Rosie Anne's situation Australia-wide.

An appeal to Northern Territory authorities to house Rosie Anne in specialist accommodation close to her Alice Springs family has been rejected.

This exclusive report from John Stewart.

JOHN STEWART, REPORTER: This prison near the West Australian town of Kalgoorlie is home to 23-year-old Rosie Anne Fulton, an Aboriginal woman born with foetal alcohol syndrome. She has the intellectual capacity of a young child.

IAN MCKINLAY, LEGAL GUARDIAN: She was born in Alice Springs in '89 with foetal alcohol-related brain damage, but she was moved by her parents back out to her Central Australian, I guess, homelands. There's a tri-state region that's covered by NT, WA and South Australia and that's where she was brought up all through her early childhood, on the various communities.

JOHN STEWART: 18 months ago, Rosie Anne Fulton crashed a stolen car in Western Australia after a heavy drinking session. A psychiatric report found that she was intellectually impaired and the magistrate considered her unfit to plead.

IAN MCKINLAY: She fell foul of WA law, mostly motor vehicle-related offences, unlawfully using a car, damaging the car, ended up in the Kalgoorlie Court, was found unfit to be tried and ended up on a prison-based supervision order, and that's because there was no alternatives available in that area.

JOHN STEWART: Ian McKinlay is Rosie Anne's legal guardian. For the past 18 months, he's been trying to get her moved to Alice Springs to be closer to her family. Today he's in Alice Springs and keeps in touch with her on the phone.

IAN MCKINLAY: Oh, she rings several times a week, sometimes twice a day, wanting to know when she's coming back to live in Alice Springs.

JOHN STEWART: Ian McKinlay is a retired police officer who worked in the Central Australian town of Papunya in the 1970's and 80's.

Rosie Anne Fulton spent her teenage years living in the river beds around Alice Springs.

IAN MCKINLAY: Yeah, she'd live in this stretch of river bed, about two kilometres between, say, the telegraph station and the gap and then the neighbouring hills and scrub either side. Whilever she had cash or alcohol or her own sexual favour to offer, they would accept her for a while, usually overnight. Come daylight, they'd drive her off with violence and most occasions she'd end up in the Alice Springs Hospital with assault-related injury.

JOHN STEWART: Will MacGregor runs an alcohol and drug rehabilitation service for young people in Alice Springs.

WILL MACGREGOR, DIRECTOR, BUSH MOB: We've had Rosie Anne walk off the Anzac Hill here, brought here by the rangers, the town rangers who had been hit by a car the night before with a broken foot and a stab wound in the shoulder. So, I'm not quite sure how we can allow that to happen in our society.

JOHN STEWART: Last year, the Northern Territory Health Department agreed to move Rosie Anne to this secure care facility built next to the Alice Springs prison. The centre was specifically designed to house people with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviours.

Ian McKinlay says he received repeated assurances from the Northern Territory Health Department that Rosie Anne would be moved here last year.

IAN MCKINLAY: They identified her as a prime candidate for secure care and they rejected any other form of service that guardians were advocating for, pending the completion of this facility.

JOHN STEWART: But in February this year, He received a new letter from the Northern Territory Health Department, this time rejecting Rosie Anne. The letter states that she is not compatible with the male residents staying at the centre.

LETTER TO IAN MCKINLAY FROM THE NT GOVT. DEPT. OF HEALTH (Feb. 15, 2014, male voiceover): "... from a clinical risk management perspective the risks posed to Ms Fulton's safety were she transferred to the facility are untenable."

IAN MCKINLAY: But when it came to the crunch, at the last minute they said, "No, we're not providing here service."

JOHN STEWART: A spokeswoman for the Northern Territory Department of Health said in a statement:

SPOKESWOMAN'S STATEMENT, NT DEPT. OF HEALTH (female voiceover): "NT's Secure care facilities are not gender specific. The Department of Health always holds the health and well-being of clients as paramount. Due to its responsibility to client privacy, the Department is unable to provide comment on specific client circumstances, treatment or care."

JOHN STEWART: Legal aid lawyer Mark O'Reilly says that Rosie Anne's story is not unique and intellectually impaired Aboriginal people can spend years in prison without a conviction because of a lack of health care facilities.

MARK O'REILLY, CENTRAL AUST. ABORIGINAL LEGAL SERVICE: We've had situations, for example, where following the ordinary process, someone might be looking at three or four months in prison. We've had people in jail for four or five years, just waiting for an outcome.

WILL MACGREGOR: Whether its secure care or supported accommodation options, the models are out there and a lot of people have been advocating those models for a lot of years, but it seems that - again, it comes back to sort of Global Financial Crisis, tighten budgets, etc. And maybe a hardening of hearts.

JOHN STEWART: Rosie Anne's family want her moved closer to Alice Springs so they can help her.

INGRID KANARI, AUNT: I want to talk to this girl when she come out. I'll tell her, "You're a pretty girl. You can have a better life, get work, jobs, settle down and work in the community." That's what I want her to do.

IAN MCKINLAY: At the moment, this outcome is almost entirely reserved for Aboriginal, Indigenous Australians. Rare exceptions, but in the Northern Territory, all Indigenous. Very similar in WA.

JOHN STEWART: For now, Rosie Anne Fulton will remain in jail in Kalgoorlie indefinitely without a conviction and without knowing if or when she will return to Alice Springs.

John Stewart, Lateline.

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